News

Congratulations to Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Ashlyn Young on her first scientific publication! Ashlyn spent last summer at the University of Minnesota with the Haynes Research Group as part of the Nanotechnology Network’s Research Experience for Undergraduates Program. While in the Haynes Research Group, Ms. Young worked with Xiaojie Wu and Donghyuk Kim, and their work has now appeared in Accounts of Chemical Research! Their paper, titled “Microfluidics-Based in Vivo Mimetic Systems for the Study of Cellular Biology,” offers a perspective on microfluidics in cell-cell modeling. Their paper explains that their studies will not model “the complexity of the in vivo human system” but will be able to “control the complexity so researchers can examine critical factors of interest carefully and quantitatively.” To read the full article, find it through
ACS Publications.

NOVOCOR MEDICAL SYSTEMS FEATURED ON TEDMED BLOG

Three companies featured in the TEDMED 2013 Hive have developed products engineered for emergency responders, reports Stacy Lu of the TEDMED Blog. Overall, 50 start-ups were featured in the 2013 Hive, but Lu features three companies focusing specifically on first responders. These companies represent a growing trend in healthcare innovation to transform emergency medical care, and one of the three start-ups is Novocor Medical Systems, co-founded by core faculty member Dr. Andrew DiMeo. Novocor originated in Dr. DiMeo’s senior design course, which immerses senior undergraduates into the healthcare field in order for them to find real-world problems to solve. Novocor’s innovative device, HypoCore, translates therapeutic hypothermia (which is typically induced by a catheter based cooling system in hospitals) into a portable and rechargeable device for EMTs to use in the field. Lu’s article highlights that HypoCore is not only great on paper—it was also designed with FDA regulations in mind and has secured nearly $1M in Series A financing. Novocor plans to file with the FDA in approximately a year and a half. Congratulations to Novocor for their continued presence in the press!
To read Stacy Lu’s full article, “Innovations to aid first responders, and not a second too soon,” head over to the
TEDMED Blog.

BME graduate student Asad Ahmad has been selected to receive an F31 fellowship from the National Institutes of Health to fund his doctoral degree. Asad’s fellowship will run for three years and support his research with Dr. Allbritton’s group. Asad’s project involves developing a micro-engineered technology to introduce tightly controlled gradients of relevant morphogenetic factors to primary colonic cells in order to reveal contributions of individual factors on colonic stem cell expansion. The colonic stem cell niche drives the most rapidly self-renewing tissue in the human body—the colonic epithelium. Ahmad’s application fell under the umbrella of the National Cancer Institute, which funded less than one third of F31 applications it reviewed in 2013. BME congratulates Asad on both the fellowship and the external recognition of the importance of his envisioned research!